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Jude Bellingham celebrates his 21st birthday on Saturday and is already a veteran England international, a Champions League winner with Real Madrid, and an undisputed member of the new wave of stars poised to dominate the post-Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo football landscape. He is an exemplary box-to-box, goal-scoring midfielder, an extremely confident and complete young man who displays maturity beyond his years and is nothing less than a marketing agency’s dream. Golden boy? This is Bellingham all around.
But for the first time in his illustrious career, the clouds are beginning to gather. Less than a month ago, after helping Real Madrid win a record 15th Champions League title with a 2-0 win over his former club Borussia Dortmund in London, Bellingham was a favourite to win this year’s Ballon d’Or after scoring 24 goals and providing 13 assists in 45 appearances. Yet after a string of poor performances for England at Euro 2024 in Germany, the closest he will get to a trophy is a birthday cake made in their image.
Although he scored the only goal in England’s 1-0 win over Serbia in the opening match of the tournament, Bellingham did not contribute much during subsequent matches against Denmark and Slovenia – both of which were drawn – and goes into Sunday’s round of 16 tie against Slovakia with doubts over his place in the squad. The elected.
After enduring the frustration he felt after a scoreless 90 minutes against Slovenia in Cologne, Bellingham said he was “absolutely dead” – a worrying admission of exhaustion before the midpoint of Euro 2024. When asked by reporters after the Slovenia match about Bellingham’s performance in Germany and whether he wanted more, he said: Of the player, England coach Southgate hinted at his displeasure with a guarded response.
“I will carry these messages with him (Bellingham) instead of publishing them in the newspapers,” Southgate said. “It’s about the team. We have to play as one team at all times.”
Wayne Rooney, the former England captain who endured similar pressures to Bellingham as a young star in the major leagues, believes the Real Madrid midfielder’s frustrations are now affecting his performance.
“For me, he looked very frustrated (at Euro 2024),” Rooney told Football Daily. “I was there – exactly the position he’s in – and even in the game (against Slovenia), I saw him with his arms up in the air.
“As a talisman for England and Real Madrid, I haven’t heard him speak. Why is that? As one of England’s leading players now in the team, he should be up front. That tells me he’s probably not doing well in the tournament.”
The debate around Bellingham is not the kind many would have expected at the moment, but there may also be mitigating factors behind his inability to shine so far.
He has been suffering from a shoulder problem since he suffered an injury last November, a problem that forced him to miss four matches with Madrid, and an ankle injury in March kept him out of action for three weeks. The shoulder injury is still affecting Bellingham, as evidenced by the heavy straps he wore during the Slovenia match which he revealed after removing his shirt at the final whistle.
Darren Burgess, the PFA’s senior advisor on player workload, told ESPN at the start of the tournament that Bellingham had already played 18,571 minutes of senior football. That figure now stands at 18,837 after playing all but four minutes of England’s three group games.
In a related context, when they were 21 years old, Rooney had played 15,481 minutes with the club and the national team, while Steven Gerrard played 7,034 minutes. While David Beckham played only 3,929 minutes.
Bellingham’s injuries and physical efforts may have caught up with him at a time when everyone is expecting a lot from him at Euro 2024. A source told ESPN that Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti considers the selfless energy and team ethic of Uruguayan midfielder Federico Valverde to be crucial for Bellingham to play. With such freedom in Spain. It goes without saying that Southgate’s side do not have a player of Valverde’s qualities, so Bellingham is struggling to be the force he is for his club.
“Valverde is Real Madrid’s leg,” said Stewart Robson, a former Arsenal midfielder and ESPN La Liga analyst. “He doesn’t just do the job for Bellingham, he does it for the whole team. He helps Dani Carvajal at right-back, he allows Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo to focus on their attacking roles and he’s generally vital for Real Madrid. “England don’t have anyone like Valverde, the only one who provides the same kind of defensive cover is Kyle Walker because of his pace.”
Reliable defensive cover is crucial for Bellingham, especially when he plays in a number 10 role and spends his time focusing on the attacking third rather than his defensive duties as a midfielder.
Southgate told ESPN ahead of the tournament that he wanted to exploit Bellingham’s attacking qualities, adding that Bellingham “is one of the players who has to be in the team”.
“With Dortmund he was more of an attacking No.8,” Southgate said. “There were moments when he played as a double No.6 and he did that with us a few times early on. But he is a player you need to let go and with Madrid he had a lot of freedom, where he was a false nine for most of the season. He was an attacking player and had a devastating impact on games by doing that.”
“Maybe we see him now as a more advanced player than we were two years ago when you were still looking at everything he could have been. Of course, when you play a certain way every week with your club, doing something completely different when you come with the national team is more challenging. But it’s more challenging.” “Without a doubt one of the players that should be in the team, and it’s about getting the right balance between where all these players are and what is the best balance for the whole group.”
It is clear that Southgate still has to find the balance England need in order to exploit Bellingham’s strengths rather than expose his weaknesses.
Sources told ESPN that there was internal debate over whether the ‘Phil Foden and Bellingham’ conversation should become Foden or Bellingham, while it was pointed out in internal video analysis meetings that the pair often occupy similar spaces when attacking. However, Southgate sidestepped questions about whether he would have to sacrifice one of the two in order to have a more effective squad.
England’s inability to advance the ball quickly through the midfield affected all of their attacking players at Euro 2024, and Bellingham was no exception. Southgate had hoped that Trent Alexander-Arnold’s passing and vision would help give Bellingham, Foden and Bukayo Saka the ball early enough in space to cause opponents problems, but England were slow in possession, which Southgate acknowledged both in personnel and tactics by substituting Alexander. Arnold eventually replaced Conor Gallagher and modified his 4-2-3-1 system to 4-3-3 with the ball in their final Group C match against Slovenia.
Part of the idea was that Gallagher could help improve England’s pressing and so they would deliver the ball higher up the pitch, allowing England’s attacking four to take advantage of quick transitions in advanced areas. This would help negate England’s problems in building attacks, but the tactical change did not work. While Southgate rolled the dice by bringing on Cole Palmer and then Anthony Gordon late in the second half, Bellingham found himself on the left wing at times so that Foden could drift more centrally, then to the right when Palmer briefly appeared to influence the play. On this side.
None of this suited him. Bellingham’s discomfort was evident, even in the Serbia game when he went on the press alone midway through the second half, was easily bypassed and clearly held back by his lack of assistance.
“He’s giving his best 100%, and I don’t think that’s the problem,” Rooney said. “We want the players to demand more from their teammates and I think that’s what he was trying to do. It’s not a criticism, it’s a compliment in some ways, but you don’t want it to escalate.” “It’s to the point where he could get a ridiculous red card.”
Bellingham’s temperament, not just his overall performances, has been a cause for concern in Germany. He has allowed himself to get caught up in pushing and pushing opponents in every game so far and has been noticeably vocal with referees. Robson, who studied Bellingham throughout his first season in La Liga, believes his attitude has changed.
“There was a difference in him in the second half of the season compared to the first,” Robson said. “You could feel a change in attitude. “Early on, he was smiling, loving life, chasing, working hard and scoring goals. But after Christmas, he went into a grouchy phase. He would be tackled and then he would stay on the ground for three seconds, complain to the officials, act like the world was against him, and we saw that in Germany as well. He basically went big time. There was a lot of talk in Spain about him being as good as Zinedine Zidane and his whole attitude changed. He stopped working so hard.”
2:13
Hislop is surprised by England’s poor form at Euro 2024
Steve Nicol and Shaka Hislop react to England’s 0-0 draw against Slovenia at Euro 2024.
However, in Bellingham’s defence, the change identified by Robson occurred after the initial shoulder injury, so was that a factor in his decline in performance and change in attitude?
“It’s possible. If you have an injury and you’re playing through the pain, you don’t want to go through a lot of challenges and struggle during matches, so if that happens, there’s only one way to improve your performance,” Robson said.
Meanwhile, sources have told ESPN that Bellingham’s elevation to England’s four-man leadership group for this finals, alongside Harry Kane, Declan Rice and Kyle Walker, has caused a degree of surprise among some in the camp. Southgate’s explanation that he wanted to connect with the younger side of the squad was the justification, and Bellingham’s appointment has been welcomed positively by his team-mates, but it comes at the start of his career.
But then again, everything he has achieved so far has changed. Despite being elevated to the elite group of England players, Bellingham, as Rooney has identified him, has yet to speak to the media outside the Football Association’s Lion’s Den, so his views on his own performances have yet to be revealed.
But speaking to the Lion’s Den after the Slovenia match, there was an admission that England had not performed as expected.
“You can play at a level that’s not your usual level or not your best, but the important thing when you wear that badge and that shirt is that you represent them (the fans) and you don’t give up,” Bellingham said. “I know there’s a lot of negativity outside the camp and the pitches, but I always feel when we step on the pitch it’s completely different. I think it’s important, as teammates and as a team, to remember that those who are on the pitch are the ones who are going to give us energy, so you don’t have to worry about those who aren’t there.”
Bellingham has gotten there, but is not yet in the tournament. With the knockout stage looming, England really need Bellingham to finally make an appearance.
(Additional reporting by Alex Kirkland)
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